In the eighteenth century, both literary and scientific writing explore thelimits and significance of belief. It was in the aftermath of theReformation, in the rise of the Enlightenment, that such questions tooktheir most disparate forms. Contemporary criticism increasingly emphasizesthe importance of examining the diverse forms of this transgeneric interest.This one-day conference, then, seeks to explore the foundations of belief insuch eighteenth-century contexts as epistemology, scientific empiricism,skepticism, superstition, religion, literary realism, law, aesthetics,historiography, and tradition.

The Transatlantic Eighteenth-Century Group invites proposals on any of thefollowing topics: scientific method, miracles, the claim to historicity,credit, experience/experiment, opinion, arguments for the existence of God,philosophy of mind, cognitive science, the news, the willing suspension ofdisbelief, probability, faith vs. works, legal evidence, the status ofreputation, or anything else pertaining to belief.